Shuffle! I-KAI Defend Game
by Flying Banana Dinosaur
Summary: AU. Yuugi's classmates think he's insane, his family walks on eggshells, and no matter what the doctors try, they can't stop his hallucinations. When the fabric separating two worlds begins to fray, he solves the Millennium Puzzle, tying his fate to that of another world. He must play the game as a neutral party stuck between two dimensions, but where does the true danger lie?
1. The Hole in the Sky

Crossposted from Ao3.

This story is vaguely based on the concept of there being an alternate dimension in which the creatures from Duel Monsters reside. Since everything between Battle City and Millennium World arcs were made up AND handled poorly in the anime (along with pretty much everything else, especially characterization), I decided to expand on the idea and make that the focus of the story, as opposed to card games, while keeping the characters true to their original manga incarnations. In short, I'm just making shit up.

The first couple of chapters will be an alternate retelling of the beginning of the manga, and the story will branch out from there. So, it will start off fairly slow... but then everything goes downhill. Look forward to it!

* * *

Yuugi Mutou didn't know where he was, but he found himself staring into the most brilliant green eyes he'd ever seen. He didn't know who the eyes belonged to, or why everything was spinning so rapidly, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he mustn't look away. He focused on nothing but the verdant glimmer in the darkness, hearing nothing but the sound of his own heart pounding in his chest and somewhere, perhaps in the distance, laughter. It wasn't the kind, compassionate laughter of his grandfather, nor the awkward, uncomfortable sort of laughter his classmates used around him. The sound was harsh. It made his skin crawl. It made him want to throw up.

Or maybe he felt sick because he felt like he'd been hit by a car. Acknowledging the pain, though, only made things worse. His vision blurred a little more, tendrils of darkness creeping in from the edges of his line of sight, dragging him down and further away from the person with the beautiful eyes. He couldn't see anything anymore. The taste in his mouth was like copper and salt. His head felt as if it could split open any moment. Everything ached, and all he could hear was that laughter, no more pleasant than nails on a chalk board.

"-ey. Get up."

Another voice came floating through the clouds of gray and black, releasing him from the clawed grip of the darkness. He felt himself breathe again, felt the concrete beneath his fingers. Slowly, his mind pulled itself together. The screeching laughter faded along with the shadows, finally dissipating when he opened his eyes. The pain didn't subside at all, unlike the rest of his dream – if that's what it had been – so he winced, splaying his palms out on the cool, flat surface below him.

"Geez. There you go. Finally!"

Yuugi pushed himself up into a sitting position, blinking away the last of the dark spots that had buried him in that terrible vision. He shook his head just enough to make his hair settle properly before he even dared to try making sense of things. Several walls surrounded him, obscuring an otherwise perfect view of the large, intimidating sort of building behind them. The sight wasn't familiar, but he could remember coming here earlier. He could remember _why _he'd come here, too.

Clenching his teeth, he turned to his right, half expecting another knee to the face. Instead, he was met with the sight of his classmate Katsuya Jounouchi. That did not make him want to relax at all.

However... Maybe he didn't have to be so uptight. Jounouchi was leaning against a wall, his bleach-blond hair askew where it wasn't matted with blood. He didn't look like he would be capable of standing for another hour, let alone getting in another fight. The sight made Yuugi feel terrible for the guy, but he was also just a little thankful that he wouldn't have to put up with another round of keep-away, like he had during lunch the day before. Jounouchi was tall, strong, and pretty much fit in with the rest of the cityscape – rude, brash, and inconsiderate. Seeing him like that, though...

"Jounouchi? Are you... all right?" The sound of his own voice scared him just a little. His throat was raw and dry, and he felt a weird rattle from deep in his chest as he exhaled. The feeling wasn't anything new, but it was distressing; he had such high hopes that, maybe, now that he was in high school, people would just let bygones be bygones, forget that he was such a weird little guy, and maybe stop waling on his face once a month. Half his teeth were capped, his left arm was fresh out of a cast, and he _never _wanted to break another rib. _Ever_.

That had never stopped his delinquent-ass classmates in the past, though. It was dumb to think that anything would change just because another year had passed, or because they were stuck in a different, considerably more run-down building. Everybody, except _somehow_ maybe the most gorgeous girl in existence, hated him, and he was used to that. He was used to being alone, used to having no friends.

When Jounouchi looked over at him, idly wiping away some of the fresh blood at the corner of his mouth, Yuugi's conscience, or maybe his self-preservation instinct, got the best of him. "I'm _so_ sorry," he gushed, unsure if his own words were his legitimate feelings, or if he was, deep down, just trying to avoid getting roughed up again. "I _swear_ I didn't ask Ushio to do that to you. I would _never-_"

"Yuugi... It's all right. I know." Jounouchi flashed him the most half-assed smile he had ever seen. "You... You're not that kind of guy, man. I get it."

Well, that was a first. Yuugi knew that he wouldn't believe his own words if he were in Jounouchi's place. The entire situation was confusing and weird. Yesterday, as he was leaving school, he had been approached by one of the upperclassmen on the school moral committee, a hulking brute named Ushio, who had proclaimed himself as Yuugi's new bodyguard. And then, as soon as lunch had started today, Ushio had shown up at the door of class 1-B, saying that he had something good to show him. That "something good" had been Jounouchi and another of their classmates, Hiroto Honda, beaten nearly beyond recognition behind the physical education supply shed.

Ushio had told two of the toughest guys in his class that Yuugi had asked him to beat them up. Yuugi was not looking forward to any days in the near future.

But Jounouchi didn't seem mad in the slightest. Not anymore, at least. Yuugi had thought he looked raring to stomp his face into the pavement when he'd first caught sight of him, but that must have changed when Ushio demanded a ridiculous fee for his "bodyguard services." Maybe it hadn't even changed until Ushio threatened to beat the ever-living crap out of him in front of both of his classmates, who now knew for sure that he couldn't last in a fight if they ever wanted to kick him around. Yuugi wanted to just sink back into the brick wall behind him and disappear. He didn't want to deal with Ushio's insane demands or Jounouchi and Honda's teasing. He was sore and tired and wanted to be home already.

"You okay there?" Once again, Jounouchi spoke, drawing Yuugi out of his nervous, muddled thoughts. "You look like that asshole knocked the sense right outta you."

"That's because he did," Yuugi murmured.

He did not expect Jounouchi to laugh at that, but it happened anyway. "You're crazy." Jounouchi chuckled and heaved himself up into a straighter sitting position, slowly crossing his arms over the bloodstained white of his undershirt once he was comfortable. "I heard that this morning, y'know. Some idiot in the front of the class was whispering 'bout how you're hopped up on pills. He said you were crazy, that nobody should mess with you."

Yuugi's stomach flopped. Of _course_ his classmates would all know about his medication already. The kids who had gone to his elementary and junior high schools didn't know how to keep a secret at all. He highly doubted they even cared what the pills were _actually_ for, because someone always used that damn word – crazy. That's why nobody talked to him, why he hadn't had a friend since Anzu Mazaki's parents made her stop talking to him back in the eighth grade. Because he was crazy.

That didn't seem to be bothering Jounouchi at the moment, though. He kept prattling on, oblivious to the grimace on Yuugi's face and his current inner turmoil. "But, you know, I don't think that's anyone's business but your own, so screw 'em all. And forget about Ushio. In about two days, I'm gonna pay him back for this."

"...What's in two days?"

"Two days should be long enough for _this_," Jounouchi paused and looked down at his body before returning his gaze to Yuugi's face, "to not slow me down. If he hadn't caught me off guard, I'd have found that knife of his and shoved it right up his ass."

Yuugi decided he liked Jounouchi.

"We gotta get back to class soon," Jounouchi continued, thankfully oblivious to the dazed little smile that was slowly creeping across Yuugi's face. "C'mon... I'll help you to the infirmary. You look like shit."

"Th-thanks."

"Don't thank me. I don't think you'd make it otherwise."

* * *

Katsuya Jounouchi exhaled deeply, trying his hardest to ignore the sharp pain from his lower ribs after hoisting yet another box onto the pallet at his side. He forced himself to smile as his supervisor sauntered over, even though he knew that he was about to get another scolding. He had only been working in this warehouse for a few months, having started two days after his sixteenth birthday. During those two months, he'd earned several write-ups, none of which had anything to do with his actual work ethic – every single one mentioned him showing up to work, unable to pull his own workload due to his various injuries. He really didn't want another bad mark on his record; he needed this job if he wanted to keep the electricity on at his apartment during the upcoming summer months. Living on the sunny side of the building with no air conditioning was suffering.

"You look a little winded there, kid," his supervisor said, starting the conversation without even bothering to fake concern. "Get in another fight, did you?"

"Sort of," Jounouchi replied. His voice was strained despite his efforts to keep it in check.

"How do you sort of get in a fight? Didn't school just start?"

"Today was the second day, yeah..." Jounouchi forced himself to keep working as he talked, stacking the heavy boxes carefully, keeping his eyes focused on the task at hand. He didn't want to see the shine of superiority and disgust in the older man's eyes. "I don't know what happened, really. One minute, I was in line for lunch, and the next... Guess some kid paid a senior to whup me. I dunno. He says he didn't, but I don't understand why else it woulda happened. I was just minding my own business."

"You look like you can hardly breathe right now. Do you want me to send you home?"

"_No_!" Jounouchi finally stopped. A stab of panic struck him in the heart, leaving him nauseous and jittery as he looked up at the man. He felt his eyes water despite his best efforts to not look completely pathetic. _I screwed up. I screwed up bad just now. _"I... I didn't mean to yell, sir. I just... I need the hours."

The man's expression softened. Jounouchi wanted to walk out of the place right then and there, if only to hide his embarrassment. Pity and understanding were two completely different things; this man definitely didn't understand him, so of _course_ he would look down on him. Poor, broke Jounouchi, who couldn't handle balancing school and a job like a real adult.

"Hmm..." His supervisor moved his closed lips as if chewing on his words before he spoke. "How about this? We'll call Inoue in to replace you tonight, and you can take his shift on Sunday. You won't have a day of rest, but..."

Jounouchi's heart skipped a beat. He almost dared to smile. "That'd be great! I... I'll be better by then, I promise. It won't happen again. I'm gonna take care of it tomorrow."

"All right. Get out of here, then. Be sure to ice your ribs, all right?"

"You got it!"

As sore and uncomfortable as he was, though, Jounouchi had no intentions of going home. He knew his father would be awake for a few more hours, and he didn't really want to explain why he was missing another shift when they were both so strapped for cash. School uniforms didn't come cheap, and neither did the bills from being kept overnight in a holding cell a few days beforehand. To be fair, the idiots who had jumped him after his junior high graduation should have known what they were getting themselves into. He still didn't think it was fair that _he _had to pay for one of the kids' hospital bills, since he'd been acting in self-defense... but at least he wasn't in jail.

He _would_ be in jail if he didn't keep this job, though. He _had _to do something about Ushio. Word around his fellow students was that his predicament was fairly common for most of the kids from his last school who'd made it into Domino High; apparently, Ushio and the other members of the "school moral committee" had a tradition of bullying the kids from the rough side of town, and extorting the softer, more gullible kids from the nice side, all with the same bodyguard ploy. Honestly, it was ingenious. Jounouchi held a certain level of respect for anyone who could come up with a fail-proof plan like that. It sounded like easy money, something he wouldn't mind getting for himself...

Well, he wouldn't mind if he couldn't remember the look on Yuugi Mutou's face when the little idiot had stood his ground in front of Ushio. But he could remember, and he could remember the sound of the choked sobs and the pained whimpers that had echoed dully off the brick walls that had surrounded them. He could remember the sound of dry heaving long after Ushio was gone, could remember the smell of blood that wasn't his own. But, most of all, he could remember the way Yuugi's eyes shone as he whispered apologies between the sobbing and the retching. Those eyes had been so full of sorrow, confusion, and most of all... self-loathing.

Jounouchi knew that look. He had felt that way, himself, any time he'd seen his old friends beating up on smaller guys. The scrunched-up brow, the false bravado in a straight-lipped scowl... It all screamed one thing: _I'm sorry I can't help you._

There was absolutely no way Yuugi had paid Ushio to stomp his face into the pavement. Jounouchi knew he hadn't told Ushio about the way he and Honda had been teasing the poor kid the day before, either. Maybe Anzu Mazaki had gone around blabbing about it, but Yuugi didn't have it in himself to wish harm upon anyone.

And yet, Jounouchi had stolen a piece of the puzzle that Yuugi kept in his schoolbag.

That made him feel worse than all the scrapes and bruised ribs he'd ever gotten. He felt guilty and _ashamed_ of himself. He'd known Yuugi for a total of a day and a half, and Yuugi had, without hesitation, willingly thrown himself in harm's way, just to protect him.

Jounouchi felt like the absolute worst scumbag in existence.

And so, he stayed in the shadows with the rest of the wretched youth of Domino City, ambling through the dark shapes cast by the skyscrapers and department stores, tracing the yet-unfamiliar path back to school. He knew what he had to do if he didn't want his conscience to keep him up all night. Besides, it would kill some time. Maybe his father would be asleep by the time he was done.

* * *

Yuugi sat that night, gazing up at the sky from his favorite spot in the park. Atop a small hill, trees formed a perfect ring around a small clearing, making him invisible to any passerby officers looking for vagrants. A mere thirty minute walk to the north of his house made the lights of the city seem faded – which made the stars, along with that thing, seem brighter.

_ That thing._

The thing he couldn't talk about anymore, the very reason for the medication Jounouchi had joked about after lunch. He didn't honestly feel like he needed it, but he had learned that when someone _hallucinates_, something as simple as a schoolyard fight gets treated like full-blown schizophrenia, and nobody feels safe being in the same room with that person, doubly so if that person was _weird_ before any supposed mental illness. Self-defense claims be damned.

That was what caused all this. _Hallucinations_.

Yuugi didn't like to think that the things he saw actually were just figments of his imagination. He had tried what felt like dozens of pills over the course of the last few years, and he had noted no changes in what he saw. No matter what dose his mother had forced down his throat on doctors' orders, he could still see... that thing.

He didn't know what it was, exactly, but it looked like a giant hole in the sky. If he had to guess, it was a giant tear in space or time, a distortion that covered most of downtown Domino City with its angry swirls of crimson and cyan. He suspected it was a gateway to another world; sometimes he would see… _things_ fall in to the city. Living things, _fantastic_ creatures. Many resembled animals or humans, yet others held no recognizable shape. Every night, they fell into the mess of buildings below, disappearing from Yuugi's line of sight. He had never been able to witness the landing in person; the only time he ever saw them coming was at three o' clock in the morning, and he'd never had the chance to make it downtown at that time. Maybe the things actually were living among the humans, and nobody else could see them but him.

Nobody else could look up and see the thing. Only him. Did that really make him... crazy?

He really hated that word. Or, at least, he had hated it until Katsuya Jounouchi had laughed so easily while saying it without a trace of apprehension or scorn in his voice. Now being crazy didn't feel like such a bad thing, not when it made other people shake their heads and smile like that. If that was what it took to make friends, Yuugi didn't mind at all. He was tired of sitting by himself night after night, staring at the sky as he waited for... Well, he didn't know what he was waiting for, but he had this terribly strong feeling that something was about to happen.

He'd almost completed his puzzle.

Eight years of work had gone into arranging the gleaming golden pieces of his treasure. He had taken notes time after time, growing increasingly frustrated as the months flew by. Sometimes, he would take a piece out of the ones he'd stuck together, just to review the shape, only to find that it wouldn't fit back together. Other times, he would rotate a piece to fit so carefully into a slot, only to have the entire puzzle break apart in his hands as it clicked into place. He had restarted on at least forty-six separate occasions, and yet, he had never made as much progress as he had that very night.

Groggy from pain and the stress from his lunchtime encounter, he had curled up on his bed after school, dodging his grandfather's worried inquiries and dismissing his fears. "I'm _fine_," he had repeated time and time again, edging his way to the back of the game store that made up the front lower story of his home. "_Totally fine._" He thanked whatever powers that be that his mother had started working afternoon shifts at her office job, and likely wouldn't see him until the weekend. She would inevitably pitch a fit, but he would worry about that when it happened.

Yuugi had stayed there on his bed for hours. He dozed off every so often, waking every time with a new idea of how to go about solving the puzzle. Every new idea had worked, miraculously. Only a few pieces remained scattered beside his pillow back home, but he needed a break.

The park was where he came when he needed to clear his mind. Sometimes, he just wandered through the trees, breathing in the scent of leaves and grass to chase away the stagnant, overpowering stench of the city. Most nights, he stayed at least an hour, until the strange creatures started falling from the torn sky. That was his cue to head home; they always came at three AM.

Over the last few weeks, though, he had noticed the strangest thing. After eight years of the normal routine, they had started to come earlier. Just last week, his watch had flashed 2:43 when the static in the air built up and the first dark shape started falling. It was different. It had to mean something, just like the sudden changes in the Millennium Puzzle's difficulty. Even if the clouds above were just a figment of his imagination, Yuugi knew that the changes were important. Tonight, his watch read 2:37 when he felt the familiar pressure in the air.

He just had to wait and find out what that meant.

* * *

Yuugi woke up the next morning with the worst headache he could ever remember having. Three hours of sleep had done him wrong on all levels, and he was exhausted from his late-night excursion. His mother took him by surprise with a large breakfast, "to celebrate a fresh start" two days late, but the noise she raised when she was his swollen, scuffed-up face only made him wince. He hadn't thought she would be home still. At least she knew what to do, having years of practice with doctoring him up after his encounters with some of his rowdier schoolmates. By the time he left to catch the bus, he was stuffed with the best meal he'd had all week and a couple of pain killers his mother had been stashing in her purse. He had a suspicion that they were stronger than anything he could have legally bought, but the relief was so immense that he couldn't bring himself to question her, even when she planted a kiss on his forehead.

"Have a better day today, dear," his mother had said.

He had high hopes until he walked through the school gates, only to be stopped by a tugging at the back of his uniform. Dread welling up in the back of his throat, Yuugi turned to find Ushio standing there, towering over him in that menacing way he did with almost everyone.

"Mornin', buddy. Did you forget something?"

"I don't... I don't have the money," Yuugi said, hardly able to raise his voice louder than a whisper. He hadn't forgotten the senior's demand of two hundred thousand yen, but that was more money than he'd ever seen at one time. There was no way he could earn that much overnight, no matter how generous his grandfather was with his allowance. But the look on Ushio's face was telling him that any reasoning would not matter. "I... I need another day. Please." _At least let these cuts heal up a little before you open them again_.

Ushio raised an eyebrow, frowning deeply. "I don't think you understand the gravity of your situation," he murmured. His voice was hardly more than a deep growl in his throat, his tone one that Yuugi had heard too many times before. He looked down at the ground, focusing intently on a patch of dead grass while the rest of the scenario played out in his head. Ushio would surely steer him to some corner of the yard, or maybe back behind the shed where he'd led him yesterday, before pulling out that knife of his...

"The gravity of what situation?"

Yuugi's eyes shot wide open the moment the voice met his ears. _"Anzu!"_

Anzu leaned against the open gate, just out of the way of the rest of the students filing into the schoolyard. Her arms were crossed, and she was glaring in a way that had sent dozens of kids scurrying off back in grade school. With Anzu around, Yuugi hadn't had to worry about bullies; they were all _terrified_ of her, after witnessing a particular incident with a chalkboard eraser and a kid who had been lucky that he hadn't lost his front baby teeth yet. But Ushio wasn't some scrawny ten-year-old with an attitude problem. Fear threatened to strangle Yuugi with its chilling grip.

"You serious, kid?" Ushio was all but laughing, regarding Yuugi with a raised eyebrow and the ugliest sneer he'd ever seen. "You went crying to a _girl?"_

"N-no, of course not!" Yuugi stepped toward Anzu, giving her what he sincerely hoped was a reassuring smile. "It's okay, Anzu. I'll be inside in just a minute!"

"I might be just a stupid girl, but I know better than that." Anzu grabbed his arm, giving Ushio a warning glance. "Come on or you'll be late again, Yuugi." And, without so much as another word, she started back over to the sidewalk, dragging him along behind her.

Yuugi didn't like the look Ushio gave them at all. He was almost afraid to turn his back on him, until Anzu flashed him a comforting smile, pulling him closer to her side with a gentle tug. Heat rose to his cheeks as his arm came to rest against her side.

The way Anzu leaned toward him made his heart pound, but her words carried a tone of disgust and anger that he hadn't heard since the time she'd had to dig the point of a pencil out of his hand. Even as his arm absorbed her body heat in the crisp morning air, Yuugi wished he had something to say that would make him feel like less of a pathetic waste of a human life.

"I can't believe this," Anzu ranted, not even bothering to hide her scowl as they made their way through the flock of students milling about the school doors. "He's the one who beat you up at lunch yesterday, isn't he?"

He started to deny the fact, but stopped short when he found himself on the receiving end of that severe look. "...Yeah, he is."

"That explains why Mr. I-Can-Win-Any-Fight Jounouchi got his butt kicked, then." Anzu returned her cool gaze to the sidewalk. "That guy's _huge,_ Yuugi. What did you guys do to make him so mad?"

"I wish I knew." And that was the truth.

"And since when did you start hanging out with that thug Jounouchi, anyway? Last I knew, he was as much of a jerk to you as he is to us girls!"

"We don't hang out. I think. I don't know. He was nice to me yesterday."

"What?"

"After... after lunch. He helped me. Before that, I didn't really talk to him, so I don't know why Ushio brought him or Honda into this. Whatever 'this' is."

"Well, I'm gonna find out, so-"

"_No." _Yuugi stopped dead in his tracks, standing rigid. The sudden thought of Ushio hurting Anzu the way he'd hurt others made his blood run cold. "Anzu... please. I appreciate it, but... I can handle this on my own."

Anzu looked down at him, her eyes wide in what he hoped was surprise rather than exasperation. Her arm went slack, releasing him from her grip. "Yuugi... All right. But if you need _anything_, don't... don't hesitate to let me know, okay?"

"Okay. Promise. I'll be fine."

"All right. I'll see you in a few minutes? Don't be late again today."

"Yeah. Of course."

Yuugi stood by his shoe locker and watched as she rounded the corner in dumbfounded silence. He couldn't help but think that he'd seriously messed up somehow within the last few minutes. But what had it been? Had he said something to upset her? Was she thinking about confronting Ushio, or maybe going to a teacher with a complaint? If that were the case, he would have to put a stop to this before it got out of hand. If he could find some way to pay Ushio off, there would be no immediate danger. He could come to school without the crippling fear he'd felt when he'd passed through the gate. Anzu wouldn't get hurt, strangers wouldn't get dragged into his personal affairs, and he would get out of this whole thing with minimum physical damage.

Maybe Grandpa would let him work at the shop for real if he asked nicely. He knew how to run the register and keep tabs on everything. It wouldn't be so bad, giving up a few hours every afternoon. Besides, he could save up the extra money for other things, new games and after-school trips to get food. He was so engrossed in his thoughts as he changed his shoes that he didn't see the person walking up beside him until it was too late.

"Hey! Yuugi!"

Yuugi completely lost his balance, startled by the proximity of the voice. He almost fell backward, but a sturdy grip on his shoulder kept him from reeling too far. Teeth clenched, he looked up to find an increasingly-familiar mop of blond hair, this time accompanied by a toothy grin. Katsuya Jounouchi looked like he'd seen better days, but he carried himself upright as if the dark bruises on his face didn't bother him in the slightest.

"J-Jounouchi," Yuugi stammered back. "Good morning." It occurred to him in that instant that it was highly likely that he was going to get double-extorted, considering all the things he'd heard about Jounouchi from his classmates' whispers, but he scolded himself and forced a little smile. "Are you... feeling all right? Those bruises..."

"I've had worse." Jounouchi laughed, but Yuugi could tell that he was uncomfortable despite his efforts to look otherwise. He was fidgeting awkwardly, his grip on his school bag tightening and loosening with no set rhythm, his free hand reaching up to comb his hair back behind his ear. "H-how about you, man? You look a little worse for wear, yourself."

"I'm all right. I've... had worse, too."

That didn't make Jounouchi laugh like he had hoped it would.

"Well... anyway... I've got something to share with you, if you got a minute?"

Yuugi nodded. He was still a little uncomfortable, but the tension was easing, now. If Jounouchi blamed him at all for what had happened yesterday, he wasn't showing it.

"Okay. You know how you keep that puzzle in your backpack? Like, it's your treasure."

Yuugi nodded again. He _really _wasn't sure where this was going, but it was... weird.

"Today, I brought my treasure, too. Wanna see?"

"S-sure?"

Jounouchi leaned back against the row of lockers. He shoved his empty hand into his pocket and closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. "Well, you can't."

"Oh." Yuugi tried to ignore the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Was Jounouchi... teasing him again? This was all really confusing. He was also pretty sure that the pain killers his mom had given him were giving him more drug-induced confusion than he was used to. It was the only explanation for...whatever it was that was going on here.

"That's because..." Jounouchi continued. He opened his eyes again, staring down at him with a strange intensity that made Yuugi wonder just how anyone could be _so_ _awake_ this early in the day. That particular curiosity faded quickly as Jounouchi kept on with his spiel. "...You really _can't_ see it. Kinda like how you've never solved your puzzle, so its final shape is... something you can see, but can't see?"

Jounouchi actually remembered his line from the first day of school? Yuugi tried to ignore his happiness at that and focused on the riddle at hand. If his classmate wanted him to play along, what could it hurt? Then again, he had absolutely no idea what it could mean in this context, seeing as he knew little to nothing about Jounouchi other than what he'd seen over the course of the last two days. Having seen the conflicting facets of the taller boy's personality, his rude, unruly side paired up with his kind, laid-back side, left Yuugi without a single clue as to what the answer could be.

After a moment of deliberation, he gave his answer. "I have no idea. I give up."

"I thought you were supposed to be good at this sort of stuff! But I'll tell you anyway. It's..." Yuugi almost missed the blush that was creeping across Jounouchi's cheeks as he grinned, but he didn't point it out. "Friendship! 'Cause I'm visible, and so are you... but you can't really see an _intangible concept."_

Impressed as he was at Jounouchi's choice of vocabulary, Yuugi was more taken aback at the fact that somebody wanted to be his friend. He hadn't a clue _why _anyone would actively make that decision, but it made him indescribably happy. He felt his own face growing warm as he tried to think of something he could say that would match how touching those words had been, but he was hesitant; he was certain he was going to say something completely idiotic if he opened his mouth. His eyes were watering, even. However, judging by the growing look of concern on Jounouchi's face, he had to say something before things went south and feelings got hurt.

"Y-you're right," he managed to say. "Yeah."

And then the final bell rang, saving them both from further embarrassment until they realized in unison that they were, just like yesterday, late for class.

* * *

The morning crawled by slowly, as most school day mornings usually did. Yuugi didn't realize lunchtime had rolled around until Anzu was shaking his shoulder, drawing him out of what had apparently been a pretty deep nap. He yawned, stretching his arms above his head, and surveyed the classroom. The other students, minus a small group on the opposite side of the room, had all presumably gone to find something to eat. A mild moment of panic struck him when he realized he no longer had time to make it to the cafeteria and back, but it settled quickly. He really wasn't hungry, just... queasy.

"Are you all right, Yuugi?" Anzu's voice was clear, a stark contrast to the warm fuzziness of his thoughts. "You don't need to go to the infirmary, do you?"

"Nah," he assured her, even though he really wasn't used to feeling so drained after one of his nighttime excursions. _It's probably just my medication reacting badly with that stuff Mom gave me earlier. _But Anzu didn't need to know that, not when they were just getting the friendship thing back on track. "I was up pretty late. That's all."

"If you're sure..." Anzu pulled a chair up from another desk, planting herself at his side. "You've been dozing off all morning."

"I only slept for two hours last night."

"That... wasn't the brightest choice." Anzu's smile betrayed her abrasive words. Her eyes sparkled like they had when she had laughed at his lame jokes all those years ago. It was comforting. Vaguely, Yuugi noted that the surrounding warmth grew the more he focused on her. Pretty much everything about her was perfect and comforting. He'd missed seeing her over the last five months.

Even before the incident that had made him transfer schools, back when they hadn't been on speaking terms, he'd been glad to see her and to know she was safe. After all, she was the closest thing he'd had to a friend for years. During the fifth grade, everyone had found out about his treatment, and she had been the only one who hadn't abandoned him. During the seventh grade, her parents had found out about his hallucinations. Her father had been adamant about how _dangerous_ he was, and Anzu had cried and cried when she told him about it, promising to hang out with him in secret, anyway.

He had been the one to walk away. He knew that it had been for the best. By keeping to himself, he had ensured that she wouldn't get dragged down to his level. After that, she didn't have to stand up for him anymore, and nobody made fun of her for sitting with him at lunch. But now, here she was, sitting beside him despite the strange looks they were getting from their classmates across the room. What had prompted her to talk to him again? A part of him wanted to know, but another little voice whispered that he was better off not knowing, lest any inquiry set off her defenses. Anzu would always be hard to figure out, but that was part of her charm.

"Are you _sure _you're all right?"

He snapped to attention, blinking rapidly to clear his blurred vision. Anzu's eyes, wide and full of concern, stared back at him. Horrified, he realized that he'd started to doze off again. She probably thought he'd been ogling her.

Heat rose to his face no matter how he tried to will it away. "S-sorry," he muttered. "I guess I'm worse off than I thought."

"I'll walk home with you after school," she said. Yuugi recognized that commanding tone. There was no changing her mind once she had decided on something – not that he really wanted to, in this case. "You don't need to fight your way onto the bus like that. You'll only hurt yourself."

"O-okay."

"We can stop for coffee along the way, right? It won't be a complete waste. Besides, I haven't been to your house in ages. We can do that history paper together. It'll be fun!"

Yuugi's mind reeled so far there was no getting it back. _He was going to hang out with Anzu. _He just smiled and nodded, hoping with all his might that he'd be awake enough by the time school let out to enjoy their afternoon together and not make a complete fool of himself.

Those hopes came crashing down when the classroom door slid open and Ushio stepped in.

The hushed murmur of voices from their classmates instantly stopped. The room was silent as the upperclassman raised his arm, extending one finger until he was pointing directly at Yuugi.

"After school, buddy. Same place as yesterday." Those were the only words he spoke before turning on his heel and stalking out of the room, leaving everyone in stunned silence. Yuugi could feel every eye in the room staring at him. Everyone _knew _what that had meant.

He tried his best to ignore the other students, opting to kind-of-smile up at Anzu. "We could stop at the arcade," he offered. His voice wavered badly, betraying his calm, sleepy exterior as it carried through the room. "Then the history report won't seem so bad."

Anzu silently diverted her gaze to the floor.


	2. The Drop Down to Two Three Zero

Yuugi's eyes had glued themselves on the clock after lunch. Jounouchi was almost offended until he noticed just where those wide eyes were focused, at which point he concluded that something must have happened while he'd been down in the schoolyard during the break. Yuugi was the type to doze off while waiting for class to end, not stare at the clock basically shaking from anticipation.

Perhaps even more strangely, Anzu Mazaki seemed spaced out during the announcement that she'd been elected class representative. She'd yammered at him several times in the last few days about the _stupidest _things, from his undershirt being against school uniform regulation to how it was _his _fault that Yuugi had been late to class two days in a row, but upon receiving what was presumably wonderful news for a goody two-shoes like herself, she'd hardly been able to form a single sentence.

Something was up. A dozen scenarios came to mind, but none of them made the least bit of sense. While it was obvious that Yuugi and Anzu were friends, even to someone who hadn't gone to the same school as them until this week, Jounouchi couldn't imagine them even _playfully _arguing about something. So why were the two of them acting so weird? Yuugi obviously _liked_ her, and judging by the way he was pointedly avoiding the worried looks she gave him every few minutes... Had he done something dumb in that regard? Had he asked her out? Had she turned him down?

That didn't seem likely. Yuugi was infinitely too shy to do something that bold, and if it _were_ the case, Anzu would be acting more like an embarrassed schoolgirl than a worried mother.

_It's strange_, Jounouchi mused, resting his chin on his crossed arms. He wanted to do whatever he possibly could to make sure Yuugi didn't get hurt again; he'd spent most of the previous night coming to terms with that fact, and there was no changing it. But how could he help the kid when he didn't even know what was wrong?

Tiredly, he glanced up at the clock, where Yuugi's eyes had been glued for nearly an hour now. The hands had to be moving slower than usual. Ages had passed since lunch, and yet, it was only 2:20. He watched the second hand slowly track its way up the left side of the clock face, almost able to hear the _tic-tic-tic_ of its internal components the lower his eyelids drooped...

2:21.

He sighed heavily, closing his eyes. Their balding teacher was going on about the procedures they'd be following on Monday in preparation for the school festival, be he really couldn't care enough to be excited. As class representative, Anzu would delegate the work to whoever she wanted, anyway. It would just make his _real_ jobs harder, even if festivals were supposed to be the highlight of everybody's high school experience. He didn't want to feel any more exhausted than usual. Waking up before dawn every day was miserable enough on a normal day.

_Waking up. _That's what he needed to do.

Blinking rapidly to clear the sudden blur in his vision, he looked at the clock again.

2:26.

He mentally slapped himself and sat up straight. Dozing off would only land him in more trouble if the teacher caught him. As much as he hated it, he was going to have to pretend to pay attention until class let out. Maybe he could invite Yuugi to hang out after school, try to coax whatever had happened out of him. They could walk around the nicer parts of town, and if there was someone bothering his friend, he'd be able to find out while still giving Yuugi his privacy...

He was going to fall asleep.

2:28.

With an only partially-stifled yawn, Jounouchi shot another glance over toward Yuugi, hoping to maybe catch his attention as some sort of distraction from –

Wait, that wasn't good.

Yuugi's hands were pressed flush against the sides of his head, his fingers trembling visibly. He looked as if he were trying to cover his ears to block out some sound that nobody else could hear. Suddenly, all the rumors he'd heard about the other boy surfaced in his mind. _"He's crazy. He sees things that aren't there. Always has."_

Was that really true? He hadn't bothered to ask, but if it was... Could Yuugi hear things, too?

"Psst!" Jounouchi tried to catch his friend's attention, wiggling his fingers near the front of his desk. At best, Yuugi could see him from his peripheral vision, but with his hands up like that, he probably wasn't even paying attention. No dice; something was really wrong.

2:29.

Yuugi lurched forward. His forehead made an audible _thunk _as it slammed against the desk before him. Startled by the sudden noise, the entire class turned in perfect unison to stare. Several of the students closest to Yuugi's seat in the middle of the room scooted their chairs nervously away from him, undoubtedly wondering the same thing Jounouchi had just moments before.

"You okay, Yuugi?" Jounouchi stood up without waiting for directions from the teacher. He circled his desk and carefully, slowly, lowered his right hand onto Yuugi's shoulder. "Hey... can you hear me?"

Yuugi's shoulders jerked the tiniest bit, once and then twice. With a sudden sense of horror, Jounouchi realized he was _sobbing_, trying to keep his mouth shut and swallow the sounds. If there was one thing he'd learned about Yuugi in the duration of the last few days, it was that he didn't like attention of any kind (unless it involved Anzu and her bad habit of leaning forward when she spoke so that the collar of her shirt opened just enough for a nice view – and Yuugi thought nobody would _notice_).

If Yuugi was in enough pain to act like this in front of a room full of people, there was something _beyond _wrong. "Can I walk him to the nurse's office?" Jounouchi asked loudly. He didn't look up to see the teacher, knowing full well he'd be on the receiving end of one of those official-type glares that figures of authority loved to give him so often. The other students would be staring, too, and he while he didn't feel the need to justify the absurd action of extending a kind hand to the weirdest kid in class, he couldn't help but feel the slightest bit self-conscious. Here he was, less than a week into the school year, surrounded by kids who had mostly come from different middle schools. Making friends seemed highly unlikely in the first place; being known as Yuugi's friend would make it damn near impossible.

Then again, too many friends was a bad thing. He wanted to make _real _friends now.

Katsuya Jounouchi didn't need to be the most popular guy in class to be happy with his high school experience.

"Y-yes, I think that would be a good idea," the teacher replied after a long pause. Jounouchi didn't miss how the man fidgeted, reaching for the top right drawer of his desk.

_"They say Mutou attacked some kid at his first middle school. Tried to shove a pencil right into his eye socket. Even the teachers are afraid of him. You never know when he could snap."_

Whatever it was the teacher was reaching for, Jounouchi didn't want to know. He glanced up at the clock as he snaked an arm over Yuugi's shoulders, watching it intently so that he wouldn't see the mixed expressions of his classmates. He could hear the murmurs starting from further back in the room, a hushed cacophony of laughter and nervous excitement.

2:29:50.

"Here we go, buddy," he murmured, reaching below Yuugi's opposite arm. As gently as he possibly could, he pulled Yuugi up to his feet, keeping his eyes on the face of the clock.

2:29:55

The bubbling noise of the other students' gossip dropped in an instant, replaced by stunning silence. The sudden change was eerie; it was as if he'd suddenly fallen deaf. It made it all the more noticeable when Yuugi relaxed against him, letting out the smallest sigh as he opened his eyes and lowered his hands.

2:29: 57

He opened his mouth to speak but stopped short. A cold draft, or perhaps a shock from his overworked nerves, traveled up his spine. Yuugi's grip on his side tightened as he let out the same sort of whimper he'd made after Ushio's first punch the day before.

2:30

Jounouchi didn't look down until he felt something cool and wet on his hand.

The boy in his arms pushed away from him so quickly that he didn't have time to register what was happening. In the blink of an eye, Yuugi had thrown himself to the floor, once more holding his hands over his ears. It occurred to him in that moment that maybe Yuugi wasn't trying to keep the sound out by holding his hands over his ears this time; rather, it seemed he was trying to keep the blood _in. _Somehow, he found it in himself to remain calm, even though he knew damn well that his nerves were being worn too thin – he was consciously controlling his own reactions, just like he did when he had to wrap himself in that fake blanket of protection on those nights when he knew his father would be home early, a tiny comfort as he struggled to comprehend what was happening or what he should do, a warmth that didn't quite take out the chill deep in his gut. If this went too far, he was going to _lose it_. The smell of blood, the pain shooting up his side where Yuugi's nails were digging into his skin...!

Yuugi's sudden screaming stole that thin fabric of calm away, ripping apart every fiber of Jounouchi's self-control as easily as a shredder tore through paper. He was bleeding out _fast_, much too much blood, the shoulders and chest of his uniform darkening to an ugly brown. Anzu's voice joined Jounouchi's own in a furious chanting as soon as they each fell to their knees, their voices cracking in a prayer of Yuugi, _Yuugi, _can you hear me _are you okay?_

Anzu's arms were around Yuugi's torso and she was holding back tears when the screaming stopped an eternity later. Yuugi finally drew his hands away from his ears, betraying no sense of terror if he saw the bright red that had stained them so. He simply balled one fist and weakly coughed into it, his half-lidded eyes unfocused and glazed. He didn't respond to any of their hushed queries, didn't even try to pull away from Anzu's tight embrace like he would have if he knew what was happening around him. The only signs of consciousness he gave after the cough were the widening of his eyes and how he drew his eyebrows together and upward to hide behind his wavy blond bangs.

He was staring out the classroom window, looking so spooked that Jounouchi hardly dared to look behind him. Slowly, wincing, he did just that.

The sky was bright and clear. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

When Jounouchi turned back around, those wide violet eyes were closed almost peacefully. "Oh no. He passed out," Anzu whispered. Her voice was wavering, noticeably strained compared to her normal strong, bossy tone. "Oh god. He needs help. _Oh god."_

Jounouchi looked up, somehow expecting help from the circle of pale-faced idiots that surrounded them. He scanned them all, and yet not a soul among them dared to move. Once more, his eyes found themselves on the clock.

2:31, it boasted.

* * *

Yuugi didn't think himself the bookish type, but that didn't mean he hadn't read dozens of texts over the last few years. Most had been dreadfully boring school assignments, a few others had been at the insistence of his mother or grandfather, and one had been a companion novel to one of his favorite manga – and it had sucked immensely.

Suck summed up a lot of things about his day so far. Each and every one of those books had some sort of hospital scene, and the only way the atmosphere was ever described was by the smell. Astringent, bleach, death, the books had all proclaimed. Never once had he been assaulted by any of those scents. The waiting rooms reeked of old people and urine, the halls like cheap industrial floor cleaner, and the rooms like both with some fresh plastic thrown into the mix.

His mother stood just outside the curtain surrounding his bed. He couldn't see her yet, but he could hear her conversation with the doctor well enough, though their voices sounded as if they were echoing down a long hallway. While he wasn't trying to eavesdrop, it was hard not to, given the lack of other stimuli in his vicinity.

"There's no way the pain medication caused this," the doctor was saying. His voice, being deeper, sounded more like it was bubbling out of some deep ocean trench than reverberating from the walls. "You don't have to worry, ma'am."

"But it was-"

"Non-steroidal. A double dose of over-the-counter pills. It did act as a blood thinner, so it probably looked a lot worse than it really was. The actual amount of blood he lost is negligible."

"But what caused it?"

"Until we discuss more with your son, we won't know. There's no infection or anything out of the ordinary. Did he gets his ears boxed in the fight that caused those other bruises?"

"I don't know. He seemed fine this morning..."

"If what his classmates said is true, there were no loud sounds, and he didn't appear to shove anything into his ears. There were no sudden changes in the air pressure, and there are no signs of infection or any visible deformations... nothing. It's honestly one of the strangest things I've ever seen since coming to work at this hospital."

Yuugi would have huffed if he'd had the energy to do so. Not only was he seeing things, but hearing them now as well? The intensity of the screeching he'd heard several hours ago had left him numb and confused, especially after the strange ringing that had started to build as the clock hands stretched themselves to 2:30. _Screeching_ and _crying_ and the painful, crushing pressure of that _whuf whuf whuf..._

That particular noise had been similar to the one made by a whip cutting through still air, only louder and deeper, like a helicopter propeller that had just started to turn. To think of the noise as a wing beat seemed a little silly, but there was no reason for him to start treading lightly in his own mind. He had seen what he had seen, and there was no way to forget it.

Nothing had been out of the ordinary after lunch. Only after 2:20, when the ringing had started, did he realize something was wrong. The feel of the air had changed, the sensation akin to the one he'd felt during his first flight to visit his father last year. Nobody else had noticed it, not even Anzu with her seat by the window. Nobody saw the things at 2:30. Nobody felt the pressure, and nobody heard the sounds.

When his ears finally gave into the weight pressing in on them, it had been a miraculous thing. He'd never felt such immediate relief.

And then five impossibly large dragons had burst from the hole in the sky, tearing through some sort of invisible matter with their gleaming claws, baring the ivory daggers that made up their teeth, writhing, pulling themselves through the air...

He'd never seen them come during the day before.

They had scattered, for the most part, like all the other things that came through the portal. However, unlike the other creatures, the dragons had wings. Instead of descending into the mess of skyscrapers several blocks away, they had flown off into the distance, howling and crying. Only one of them had stayed, a monstrous beauty the same color as the snow atop the mountains in the north. It had landed atop the school, its wings making that terrible _whuffing_ noise as they flapped, and then the noise had stopped. Everything had been eerily silent for a few moments, long enough for him to open his eyes (when had he squeezed them so tightly closed?) and look outside once more...

The dragon had been peering into the window. It had seemingly hung from the side of the building, stretching its neck out to its full length, just to peer into that one specific window. The dragon had stared right into his eyes, blinked twice, and opened its mouth. The screech had sent him to his knees. It hurt _so bad_, was so unbelievably _loud _and _grating, _ten times worse than an emergency siren and _a hundred_ times louder. He'd felt every instant of that terrifying howl, tearing right through his heart and his intestines and his spine and his _head, _oh god his _head_, it hurt so bad...

"Yuugi? Yuugi, can you hear me?"

Yuugi groaned softly and shook himself out of the memory, opening his eyes. His mother was leaning over the bed, frowning gently in that way she did when he would come home covered in fresh scrapes and bruises, a sight that was both comforting and embarrassing in its familiarity. Certainly, her tentativeness had kept his wounds from infection over the years, but he wasn't really injured this time. He should have been allowed to take care of himself.

How could she look so gentle, knowing about the ambulance bill and the cost of the emergency room visit? And after that, only to be told that nothing had happened...? Even worse, his father would be the one to actually pay the bill, so she would have to break the news to him in just a few hours during their nightly telephone conversation. And then his father would want to talk to him, to ask if he was all right in that heavy tone that just barely concealed the real meaning of his words. _You keep getting into trouble. Why don't you take better care of yourself? What's _wrong _with you?_

"I can hear you. I can hear just fine," he finally said. Honestly, he couldn't even tell if he was speaking loud enough for her to hear, but he hoped she would buy it. It was easier to hear her than it was to hear his own voice; everything he said sounded muffled and _weird _from inside his head.

If she saw through his bluff, she didn't let on. "That's good... But it looks like the doctors want to keep you overnight. They want to examine everything, see if they can't find out what happened. I'm going to head home for now, but I'll be back with your pajamas, all right? Is there anything else you need? Maybe one of your games?"

Yuugi gave a noncommittal grunt of acknowledgment and braced himself for what was sure to be a long, uncomfortable night in his hospital bed.

He didn't want his mother to make the trip back to see him later. He didn't want his father to foot the bill. He didn't want his grandpa to spoil him with extra dessert after his mother went to bed like he always did after a bad day.

Yuugi wanted to take care of his own problems for a change. Especially if those problems were dragons.

* * *

"What are _you_ doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Jounouchi shot back. He didn't cross his arms like the girl in front of him, accustomed to standing with them at his sides instead. He was always at the ready, prepared to dodge a punch or throw one of his own, and for that, he needed to keep his limbs free from entanglement. Her tone still aggravated him, though, and he felt his fists tighten despite his original intent to keep this visit as polite as possible. Such open hostility never failed to set his nerves ablaze; he couldn't help it.

If he had to describe Anzu Mazaki in a word, it would be just that – _hostile_. She reminded him of some of his old acquaintances in that regard. Her words were always concise, fierce, and resolute. She didn't know how to take no for an answer, and she acted like she was _better _than everyone else. Jounouchi had no idea how such a girl had ever become friends with someone as gentle and demure as Yuugi Mutou, unless Yuugi's absolute lack of audacity had somehow kept him below the radar of her explosive temperament. Actually, maybe that _was _the reasoning behind their bizarre friendship. He couldn't see it working any other way.

But what right did he have to call her out on that? It wasn't like he was a better choice for a companion. Here they stood, a street rat and the class representative, energies clashing in front of the door of the Kame Game Shop.

"I want to be here when Yuugi gets home," Anzu announced. Her tone was loud and clear, a direct challenge: _Just try and tell me you have a better reason._

Jounouchi didn't have a better reason. The truth of the matter was that he was an awful person to trust, and generally brought only misery to anyone who interacted with him.

But, on the flip side, what Anzu needed to understand was that he could be just as driven when he set his mind to something; he'd done the impossible time and time again. Beating down five guys twice his size when they'd ganged up on him, juggling two part-time jobs and school, actually _leaving _Hirutani's gang and surviving to tell the tale...

Well, she didn't need to know the details. He'd made his decision. He was going to be a better person, and he was going to repay every ounce of kindness Yuugi had unwittingly shown him when he stood up against Ushio. He'd started working toward that goal slowly, by standing at Yuugi's side when the rest of the class had stared in silent fascination and horror.

Yuugi's blood had stained his brand-new school jacket. He knew better than to hope it would simply come out in the wash – hell, he knew that from years' worth of ruined clothes. One week ago, if the same thing had happened, he'd likely have come to Yuugi's home to demand enough money to replace his entire uniform. But that wasn't the reason he had gone so far out of his way today.

Drawing up to his full height, Jounouchi looked down at Anzu and forced himself to smile. "Actually, I just wanted to see him, too. Y'know, see if he's doing all right," he replied in his most jovial tone. "Mind if we wait together?"

Anzu opened her mouth as if to speak, but stopped. For a moment, she eyed him, very clearly not trusting his motives.

Jounouchi was actually okay with it this time. It made him happy, in a way, that Yuugi actually had such a reliable friend.

"I... guess so."

And that was that. Except Yuugi didn't come home, so he wound up wasting his afternoon talking with Anzu about their mutual friend, right up until Yuugi's grandfather came to see why there were a couple of loiterers milling about his storefront and recognized him from the previous night.


	3. The Man from the I-KAI

Despite the doctor's strict orders to sleep on his back, Yuugi rolled to his side and groaned. His bed was less comfortable than the gurney on which the paramedics had wheeled him into the hospital. The surface was too hard and narrow for him to get comfortable without throwing a leg off the side, but that wasn't an option, either. The room was frigid and drafty, especially with being so close to the giant window. Even the blankets didn't do much to stave off the chill. They were too light and threadbare, nowhere near as warm and fluffy as the western comforter on his bed back home.

That was where he wanted to be. Home.

According to the last nurse who had visited, he would be able to check out early in the morning. He probably wouldn't make it to school on time, but he somehow found himself not caring about that bit. School was not his favorite thing in the world, though the thought of Anzu worrying made him feel guilty. And Jounouchi, who had tried so hard to help him while that dragon was screeching...

As quietly as possible, Yuugi sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. The clock on the wall was barely visible in the dim moonlight that filtered in through the curtains. If he was seeing right, it was just after midnight. His roommates were all asleep, lulled by the steady beeping of their heart monitors and various drugs. Unlike those lucky souls, he wasn't going to be sleeping anytime soon.

For years, he'd entertained himself with late-night walks to calm his nerves. The sight of the wounded sky always calmed him, soothing away the jittery feeling he always got around this time of morning. That wasn't an option tonight.

He wasn't sure what to make of the last few days, though. Until that afternoon, he'd been certain that the timing of the falling monsters had meant something. They always came at three in the morning. Then, they had started coming earlier and earlier, the time creeping towards the two-thirty mark. One or two minutes one day, perhaps ten the next... but twelve whole hours? What was that supposed to mean?

Furthermore, something else had been bothering him since the moment he'd regained consciousness.

Where had the dragons gone?

With a look around, he made sure he wasn't disturbing anyone's rest before standing up. He felt for his slippers with his feet, slid them on, and made a beeline for the door on the tips of his toes. He needed to go outside, needed to search the skyline for any sign of the monstrosities from earlier.

Minutes later, he made it to the roof.

A quick scan of the sky let him know that yes, the giant hole was still there, and no, the dragons were not.

But he wasn't alone.

At the opposite end of the rooftop, a man stood atop the guardrail that ran the length of the building. Yuugi felt a sudden pang of nausea and terror, freezing at the sight. The man was precariously balanced on the rounded surface of the rail. Yuugi knew one strong wind would send him four stories down to the stone-paved sidewalk of the courtyard. Had he come out here just to witness someone jumping to his death? Was he interrupting a suicide?

The door closed behind Yuugi, slamming with the force of the spring-loaded hinge. The sound startled both him and the stranger, if the way the man jumped and turned his head was any indication. Yuugi had to blink to clear his sudden blurred vision as his ears rang with protest, trying to keep the world from spinning around him. He couldn't even open his mouth to apologize for the intrusion for fear of losing his meager dinner.

Somehow, the man on the bar didn't lose his balance despite his surprise. He simply pivoted his heel and shifted his weight, turning to face Yuugi with an ethereal grace. Yuugi couldn't make out his features with the moon at the man's back, only that he had long, dark hair and was at least a head taller than him.

He also wasn't sure if he should be more impressed or terrified. "I-I'm sorry for interrupting," he called out after the ground stopped rocking back and forth. "I just... wanted some fresh air. I can go back inside if I'm bothering you."

When the man spoke, his voice didn't sound muffled or warped like everything else did. "You can see me?" His voice was as fluid as his stance, not too deep nor high. Tilting his head in query, he brought his arms up from where they had rested at his sides and folded them across his chest. "That's peculiar."

"H-how do you mean?"

"I mean that you must be different from normal humans, child." Those words likely would have angered Yuugi in any other situation. However, this man's voice held no tone of mockery. He spoke like the wizened man who owned his favorite bookstore, as if he had countless years of knowledge stored within. That word, child, was not meant as an insult toward his appearance for the first time in recent memory. Even the man's strange choice of words – who even referred to other people as humans? – didn't stir any sense of anxiety or confusion within him.

Everything just sort of made sense. He _knew _he should be panicking right now, but he simply could not. He felt like he did when his teacher would explain an infuriatingly complex math problem in smaller steps, as if he had just started to _get _how to work it out. He was at the dawn of realization with a surprisingly clear mind. "That means you're different, too, if nobody else can see you. Right?" he asked.

"That would be correct, were I human."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Your definition of the word and my definition of the word are two very different things."

"Oh." Yuugi looked past the man, toward the swirl of color against the black of the sky. "So I guess that means..."

"I'm not from this world. You're correct."

"Why are you okay with telling me that?"

"You're no danger. You can hardly walk upright." The man stepped off of the guardrail, landing on the roof without a sound. He moved as if he were gliding across the surface rather than walking, making his way over to where Yuugi stood. "You don't seem startled by my presence here, so I can assume you've seen enough evidence of my home realm to believe anything I tell you." He stopped a few meters away, but Yuugi could finally make out his face. Striking blue eyes shone behind his veil of hair, surprisingly light considering his darker skin tone. His smile was barely noticeable, thin dark lips that hid in the shadows of the night, but he didn't look half as terrifying as he should have. Kindness radiated from those eyes, despite how cool and calculating they appeared. "And... I suppose I wouldn't mind talking with you if you have the time. Rather, I'd like it quite a lot. I've been stuck here for a good number of years, you see, searching for... something important. I didn't realize how lonely I would be, living in a world surrounded by others but unable to converse with any of them."

A sudden realization slammed into Yuugi. He was the only one who could see the creatures from the other world. His chest ached with a pang of guilt. He'd spent so long pretending that the stupid portal didn't exist, but... were there others like this man? Others who were living alone somewhere in Domino, standing hidden in plain sight of the populace? Normal souls who wanted nothing more than to talk with someone after being alone for months and months?

"Damn," he whispered. "S-so you... you..."

"It's not so bad," the man murmured. "I have my companions, and we get along well enough. They don't speak, but we communicate. That's not the problem."

"Then... what is?"

"The fact that you, a human child with no significant spiritual aura and no obvious connection to my home world, can see me plain as day."

"How is that a problem?"

"You're the only person I've encountered who can see me." The man hummed to himself and turned to the side, observing Yuugi from a different angle with narrowed eyes. The way his gaze flicked up and down made Yuugi feel more than exposed, as if he weren't even wearing his pajamas. Or his skin. He felt as if this stranger had somehow found out every secret he'd ever kept to himself, and, in a way, that was what had happened. His struggle of eight years seemed like nothing now that he was speaking with one of the _creatures_ he'd seen.

If the man wasn't human, it was only noticeable in those crazy eyes of his. Yuugi stared up into the blue, absolutely transfixed. He wondered if this was how a fly felt before running straight into a bug zapper, transfixed by the comforting glow. The man decided to speak once more, though, cutting off that train of thought.

"I can't be certain," the man mused, "but I think the reason could be simple. Maybe you've had a scrape with death that has left your senses heightened beyond that of a normal human. Or, less likely, you've had contact with the few items that exist in all dimensions."

Yuugi frowned. "If you can't speak to humans, then how would you know what makes us see you?"

"How about we start with names, first?" The man relaxed his pose, his arms falling to his sides once more. "I promise not to hurt or otherwise incapacitate you, so would you humor my request?"

Yuugi shuffled back and forth, weighing his options. There wasn't any real harm in letting this guy know his name, was there? What could he possibly do with that little information? "Y-you can call me Yuugi. So what should I call you?"

"My name is Mahaad."

"Okay, Mahaad, how do you know so much about humans?"

"Our worlds were not always so far apart. Come along." Without giving Yuugi any time to process the request, Mahaad stepped away, moving once more to stand at the edge of the roof. Yuugi followed moments later, matching two footsteps to each of the taller man's. He padded along in his slippers, rather embarrassed at the fact that his scratchy shuffling made enough noise for the two of them. Mahaad still seemed to make no noise at all. If his companion had any thoughts on the matter, he didn't voice them. He instead continued his explanation once Yuugi had caught up.

"My home is not so different from this world of yours. We have the same trees, the same grass... even a few cities, though few are so advanced. That world has existed alongside this one for many, many ages. Think of it as a parallel universe, separated from this one by a piece of fabric." Mahaad gestured up to the swirling clouds above. "Most cloth is permeable, correct? The barrier between our worlds is much the same, always giving a little here and there, allowing us to share the basic laws of physics and the fundamentals of life and soul. Basically."

Yuugi nodded like he knew what the man was talking about.

"Cloth is flexible and versatile most of the time. Yet, if you stretch it out and pour water over the top, the water will pool in the middle and pass through. That is what is happening right now, the reason you've likely seen many bizarre things lately. Darkness is consuming my world, and its inhabitants are pooling together in the few safe places that remain safe. When too much energy builds up in one place, though, the barrier can't handle it, and a few residents fall out of that world and into this one." The sadness was back in those eyes, plain enough to make Yuugi shrink back in on himself.

"I... I'm sorry to hear that."

"Things have been like this for a long while now. There is no reason to be sorry. It is just the way things are, a basic truth. At the first signs of corruption in the land, everything must leave lest it perish in the blackness." Mahaad sighed, resting his hands on the cold metal bar before them. "You know, the weakness of fabric... Stretch it flat, water pools in the middle. Stretch it even more, and it will start ripping from its weakest points. Eventually, everything will fall through, whether you want it to or not. The good and the bad.

"My people and I... None of us choose to come here, Yuugi, but it has been happening for ages and will continue to happen. When the light is finally gone from our world, the fetid darkness will seek out a new feeding source. Your world will not last.

"Perhaps it's good that normal humans can't see us, though... We cannot alter the matter in your world, cannot take what is yours, cannot harm you at all. I prefer at least some innocents remain ignorant of the reality that awaits them. Your people don't deserve to spend their final days sick with worry."

The world was going to end? "How... how do you live here if... if you can't...?" It was all too much too fast. Mahaad had explained so many years of wondering, hate, horror, and fascination in so few words. Yet, Yuugi didn't know whether to accept it or run crying back inside to ask for a sleeping aid before his mind played any more tricks on him. Perhaps the worst part was that it all made terrifying sense. He had known all along that his _hallucinations_ meant something – and, unless this was another one, he had been right.

"Most things that come here die within the first two weeks," Mahaad explained in a strained voice. He didn't seem to notice Yuugi's sudden wave of apprehension. "We starve to death. Our bodies exist, yet remain trapped in a dimension just outside your reality. That's why humans who come close to death are able to see us; they can see through the wrong side of the one-way glass. Does that make sense?"

"No," Yuugi answered. "I've never come close to dying. I just... had a birthday, and suddenly I could see everything. Lots of you guys, every single night. But... if _you_ can't touch things, how are you living here? How do you get food? How do you survive?"

"My magic sustains me," Mahaad answered as if it were the simplest thing in the world. "Others are not so lucky. They do not have such a sturdy grasp on the matters of their soul or the energies of the worlds. Though perhaps, on some subconscious level, you have some control over your own 'sixth sense'. That would explain why you can see me if you've never come close to death."

"I definitely don't, sorry."

"Hmm... Long ago, the people of your ancient civilizations would communicate with us... So, reason stands that some tradition may remain in your family. Perhaps something in your home heightens your senses. There are many explanations. I don't think we're going to come to a conclusion within the next two minutes, though, so... Perhaps it's best we just don't question it."

Yuugi hugged himself as a sudden breeze whipped past. He hadn't noticed his own discomfort when he first came outside, distracted as he had been by the strange man before him. The night wasn't particularly cold, but the wind stirred the legs of his pants and tore through the fabric like shards of ice. As fascinating as this conversation was, he couldn't deny the dropping temperature was getting to him. "Two minutes? Why are you leaving so soon? I'd like to hear more if you have the time. You can come inside with me."

"Earlier today, some old friends fell out of the sky," Mahaad murmured. "I sent one of my companions to find them. He should be back soon. I must speak to them as soon as possible."

Earlier today? "The dragons!"

At this, Mahaad only smiled. "You are correct. Beautiful, were they not?"

"One of them blew out my eardrums," Yuugi grumbled. Beautiful was not the word he would use to describe the sensation. "It was weird. They came way earlier than everything else."

"I noticed that myself. I can only surmise this means they came here of their own free will, which only brings more questions to mind. I hope to find out more by meeting with them."

"Do me a favor and ask why the white one hunted me down."

"Hunted...?" The man's eyebrows rose so high they became completely invisible behind his strange hat. "But she's normally so peaceful!"

So the white dragon was a she? "_She_ flew right at my school, landed on top, and stared at me through the window. I think that counts as hunting."

"Perhaps they've learned to narrow down which humans can see us," Mahaad ventured. "If they found a way to come here of their own free will... they must be trying to find help, or at least... warn the people here of the impending danger. I doubt she intended to harm you."

Somehow, despite all the trouble from the hospital visit, that knowledge made him feel better. The worried knot in his stomach loosened as his shoulders relaxed. Even in the chilly wind, the feeling spread to his extremities, a warm coat of relief and sleepiness that he should have felt hours ago. The beginnings of a smile pulled at his lips for the first time since early that morning. He didn't have to worry anymore.

"Here's my comrade, now," Mahaad announced.

Yuugi honestly didn't know what he was expecting when he looked over the guardrail.


End file.
